Discuss the various methods you use in music production, from compressor settings to equipment type.
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By damien907 Sun Nov 06, 2011 5:42 am
how many of you tune your drums to the key of your beat?

could you direct me to a beat that has tuned drums?

what are you feelings on them? a nice addition to a track or a huge waste of time?

i heard that dude nitti say in an interview that he tuned all his drums, thats pretty cool. i think it could open alot of doors musically to have tuned drums.

if you have tuned your drums before, do you do it by ear or use an actual tuner?

it seems like i dont have the best ear when it comes to finding the correct pitch in a scale so i think drum tuning would be hard for me, but i think it would sound pretty cool once i go the hang of it.

im talking strictly electronic drum samples/kits here.

also anyone buy a library that has tuned drums in it before? ive never seen that.

i was thinking if i found the note a drum hit at, i could apply it to a keyboard and have that drum sound use a whole octave. is this how people do this type of thing? i could see this getting very time consuming though, and you would probably use alot of samples before you found the best fit.

discuss.
By Clint Sun Nov 06, 2011 7:57 pm
Like all other sounds, drums have a fundamental pitch.

Drum kits, like other instruments can be tuned.

Most people don't bother tuning their drum samples.

Certain pro's will tell you that they do, but not always.

As ever, it depends on the sample.
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By ArKyve-31 Sun Nov 06, 2011 8:04 pm
there's a scott storch kit floating around that has all his drums tuned, just cant remember where I saw it. I tune all my drums, (probably to much). I suggest just messing with it, just like anything else you'll find what you like and it will become routine.
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By padlock Sun Nov 06, 2011 8:16 pm
always!

if you have your ears tuned, then hearing a drum not sitting right is second nature to do something about it..

you can get away with it though, but im a bit ocd..

a must when layering drums on one another.. i spend a decent amount of time during the workflow doing things as such
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By -niN Sun Nov 06, 2011 8:47 pm
what he^said.. :lol:
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By Lampdog Sun Nov 06, 2011 9:46 pm
padlock wrote:im a bit ocd..


i spend a decent amount of time during the workflow doing things as such


+1
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By damien907 Sun Nov 06, 2011 10:25 pm
hmm, ill look for that scott storch kit. any other kits that are tune that you know of?

if im finding the key of my sample, say if it was in cM my drum would hit at C wouldent it? because the scale is C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C

but if it was in Cm the scale would be C,D,Eb,F,G,A,B,C

would i still use my root note as a C for my drum pitches? can this be song dependant? i think it might matter what cords were being played as well and using the root notes of the main chords? am i correct in assuming this?

im not tone deaf, and i can usually tell when an instrument is out of tune, its just hard for me to tune it to the right key.

when you do tune your drums, do you just do it by ear or do you find the note that your drum is and tune it by semitones ect/ in the mpc?

do any of you have a beat or 2 you could post that i could try and guess the key of?
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By tapedeck Sun Nov 06, 2011 11:19 pm
imo you are thinking too hard about it. if something sounds a bit off, try tuning it a little.

finally, not all drums have a root note. case in point a white-noisy sample (like a snare) or an impulsive sample (like a short hihat). or even an 808 kick, that starts at one 'note' and falls to another.
(fyi white noise and impulses are special precisely because of their lack of fundamental pitch - yes you can tune noise but my point is not all sounds have a 'note').

i wouldnt get so caught up in note-definitions as opposed to just tuning them slightly til they sound right.

yea they might have a dominant freq but i wouldn't get so caught up in the numbers as to how it sounds regardless of the numbers.

also, drum beats alone do not have a 'key'. maybe they have tone-heavy sounds but not a 'key' like c major.
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By elevated Mon Nov 07, 2011 12:26 am
tapedeck wrote:imo you are thinking too hard about it. if something sounds a bit off, try tuning it a little.

finally, not all drums have a root note. case in point a white-noisy sample (like a snare) or an impulsive sample (like a short hihat). or even an 808 kick, that starts at one 'note' and falls to another.
(fyi white noise and impulses are special precisely because of their lack of fundamental pitch - yes you can tune noise but my point is not all sounds have a 'note').

i wouldnt get so caught up in note-definitions as opposed to just tuning them slightly til they sound right.

yea they might have a dominant freq but i wouldn't get so caught up in the numbers as to how it sounds regardless of the numbers.

also, drum beats alone do not have a 'key'. maybe they have tone-heavy sounds but not a 'key' like c major.


Knowledge = dropped
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By damien907 Mon Nov 07, 2011 12:30 am
cool, i didnt even think about white noise ect.
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By MPCWeapon1 Mon Nov 07, 2011 7:34 pm
I tune all my drums...when you get your drums from records, you almost have too.if you use library stuff you really don't. The people who design those drums sounds are pretty good at what they do.
By mastasteez Mon Nov 07, 2011 7:49 pm
MPCWeapon1 wrote:I tune all my drums...when you get your drums from records, you almost have too.if you use library stuff you really don't. The people who design those drums sounds are pretty good at what they do.


in my experience, it's vice versa. Pack drums sound too rigid/static/sterile and manufactured where as from vinyl or breaks, they're as they supposed to be and sound more real and organic.

Not saying I don't tune 'em. Like 'deck said, if it don't sound right - tune it. But a stock drum will normally always need tuning, to me at least
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By thx Mon Nov 07, 2011 7:57 pm
mastasteez wrote:
MPCWeapon1 wrote:I tune all my drums...when you get your drums from records, you almost have too.if you use library stuff you really don't. The people who design those drums sounds are pretty good at what they do.


in my experience, it's vice versa. Pack drums sound too rigid/static/sterile and manufactured where as from vinyl or breaks, they're as they supposed to be and sound more real and organic.


+1
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By -niN Mon Nov 07, 2011 9:14 pm
I just about always play with the pitch a little ... Is that "tuning"???
I also mess with filters and maybe EQ at times... (All of it effects the sound =brightnes, ... and.. stuff.. you know,... aahm.. frequencies, like..), till it sounds right to me .. or even wrong, but in a dope way.. :lol: :mrgreen: